Page 166 of Wicked Proposal
“Why do you have her?”
“What do you mean?”
“Mia.” Yulian’s gaze is cold, hard steel. “Just answer me.”
I blink, confused. “She… she attacked me in my car. She had a blade. She wanted me to drive.”
Yulian’s eyes sweep over me as I speak, concern taking over his features. “Did she?—?”
“I’m fine,” I say quickly. “She didn’t touch me. But who is she, Yulian? Do you… do youknowher?”
His jaw flexes. His fists clench and unclench at his sides, betraying his nerves.
“Yes,” he rumbles. “That woman is Nikita Morozova. A lieutenant of my Bratva… and the soldier who’s been missing since July.”
Say what now?
52
YULIAN
Nikita.
Three months we’ve been looking for her.
Three.
Fucking.
Months.
And now, here she is, soaking my hardwood floors.
Not that I could give less of a shit about that. What’s ridiculous is that a whole army of my men couldn’t track her down, but somehow,Miadid.
Mia, who knew nothing about her.
Mia, whom I’d sworn I wouldn’t see again unless it was part of the plan.
Mia, who’s now working tirelessly to save her.
She has no idea who Nikita is, aside from the fact that she apparently held her at knifepoint and tried to carjack her. HowMia is even still alive after that, I have no clue. Nikita is a trained killer.
Granted, she’s not the type to cut up nurses in parking lots, but I doubt Mia could have overpowered her even without lethal intent on her part.
The fact that she apparently did?
It means Nikita’s on death’s doorstep.
At least, that’s the assumption I’m working on as I watch Mia dart around my cabinets, gathering up battlefield supplies to treat her. It must be far from what she’s accustomed to: dry beds, clean tools, a full pharmacy waiting on her. But she doesn’t utter a single word of complaint.
“Mia.”
She doesn’t answer me, still rummaging for God-knows-what in place she won’t find it.
“Mia,” I repeat, harder.
“What?” She doesn’t quite snap, but the urgency in her tone is clear. She needs to take care of her patient. Here, she is onherbattlefield, fighting a war I know nothing about: the war against death. She has no bandwidth for distractions.
